#TCOT: Who would have guessed?

The General Motors chief executive Rick Wagoner said the biggest U.S. automaker got “what we asked for” with $9.4 billion in U.S. loans over the next 24 days. Investors are betting that it will not be enough.

GM tumbled the most in more than a month Monday in New York trading, while credit-default swaps on the company’s bonds jumped 2 percentage points in a sign of increasing concern that the Bush administration’s bailout may end in a default.

The stock-price slide all but erased the 23 percent gain on Dec. 19, when the Detroit-based GM received a federal aid package to help it stay in business until March 31 while crafting a plan to shut plants, shed brands and reduce debt.

“It’s almost impossible for a management that invested in the assets, that hired the people, that put forth the strategy, to change so dramatically in such a short period of time,” said Edward Altman, a New York University finance professor who created the Z-score formula to measure bankruptcy risk.

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*emphasis added